The West Bengal Human Rights Commission (WBHRC), which has taken suo motu cognisance of more than 100 cases of custodial deaths in about five and a half months in West Bengal, said that barring one or two cases there was no foul play involved.
As per the latest data uploaded on the WBHRC website, the panel took cognisance of 110 cases.
The list covers the period from November 23, 2016 to May 16, 2017.
Among these, 12 deaths took place in the Special Vagrants Home in Paschim Medinipur district, eight were reported from Presidency jail and six took place in the Dum Dum Central Correctional Home in Kolkata.
However, the WBHRC chairperson, former Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, Girish Chandra Gupta said: “Custodial death does not necessarily mean beaten to death (in custody). When a person dies in custody it is referred to as custodial death. There is no reason to think that the 110 people who died were beaten to death or met with unnatural deaths,” Justice Gupta told The Hindu.
Death from illness
He also said that in the majority of such cases mentioned on the WBHRC website “the concerned convict or under trial person died due to illness.”
Steps taken
“In one or two cases we have ordered further investigation and summoned (the officials concerned). Wherever we got trace of any foul play we took necessary steps,” said Justice Gupta.
However, legal experts and rights activists questioned the panel’s findings. Former WBHRC chairperson and Supreme Court Judge Ashok Ganguly said that “it is very unusual that out of 110 cases, WBHRC found possibility of foul play only in one or two cases. In case of custodial deaths police will obviously try to show them as natural deaths. It is for the panel to properly scrutinise the police version.”
